The Measure of Knowledge: Knowledge, Balance, and the Examined Life

Abstract

This essay examines how to decide which forms of knowledge are worth cultivating when the information available exceeds our capacity to absorb it. It distinguishes three kinds of value in knowledge—instrumental, broadening, and experiential or existential—and proposes allocating attention according to the consequences of ignorance, the goods we hope to attain, and the cost of learning. A case involving a choice among valuable forms of knowledge helps clarify these criteria. The main difficulty is that knowledge can transform the ends from which we judge its relevance. Giving knowledge its measure therefore requires attending to present responsibilities while reserving room for exploration capable of challenging our priorities. The proposal is understood as a prudential practice: open to revision and compatible with justified reliance on others.